Rose
by Pongo0614
Summary: In an attempt to rescue a friend, a warrior to defect to the other side in hopes of a speedier resolution to the war. During the war, the soldiers from the other side start taking souvenirs from the fallen enemies. When they take a flower, given to the soldier from his lover, it leads to people committing surprising acts in their sleep, ultimately bringing around their downfall.


_So hey..._

_To my regular readers, I am sorry for my extended absence. I got out of the routine of writing and then it became like a chore. I have been trying to write one story all year and I am still only on chapter 8... and I keep moving back the date that I am going to publish it because of that (and it is also a Doctor Who fic... So not great for you guys). _

_However, I am back into writing, basically because the fic I am currently writing is writing itself (I am on chapter 23). It is a Waterloo Road fic, don't know whether anyone remembers the show or is interested but I hope to finish it soon and upload it. Then I might get back to the ones that I have had planned for a while now._

_But back to this fic. This is something that I challenged myself to for the 7th anniversary of my Merlin Instagram account. I have had it for so long and I wanted to do something special for it. So I had my followers' randomly select things for it and this is the product of that random selection. I tasked myself with writing it in one day, and as I started late yesterday, I didn't plan it. It had to be over 1,500 words (it is 2,036) and it had to include (I may have bent my own rule and just had some of the characters mentioned) all the characters that were chosen._

_I hope that you enjoy this madness until I get back properly._

* * *

**Rose**

In an attempt to rescue a friend, a warrior to defect to the other side in hopes of a speedier resolution to the war. During the war, the soldiers from the other side start taking souvenirs from the fallen enemies. When they take a flower, given to the soldier from his lover, it leads to people committing surprising acts in their sleep, ultimately bringing around their downfall.

* * *

To Merlin, it seemed like the war council had a meeting every day to discuss new ideas on how to win this war. He knew that it was going to happen one day. Those with magic would finally get tired of all of the persecution and decided to stage an uprising. It had cost him Arthur and his destiny and even though he knew that he was on the wrong side of all of the fighting, he couldn't bring himself to join the other side. Magic was winning at the moment and with Uther's madness and Arthur's death, he couldn't find a reason to care about what could happen to him. He was meant to bring about the golden age and the rise of magic, not some group of druids that had enough.

Even his closest friends in the knights had defected to the other side. Lancelot and Elyan had gone after the deaths of Leon and Percival and he hadn't blamed Gwen when she left with her brother. Gwaine was the only one that had stayed at the moment but Merlin knew that he wanted to join the other side. He was only still in Camelot because of Merlin.

Gaius gave him a smile as he entered the room and took his place in the shadows. Merlin didn't even understand why he was called to these things. All he was there to do was to fill up their goblets.

"Reports?" Uther said.

"After the death of her father, Mithian has given support to the rebels. Whether for protection or because she agrees with them, we do not know. But that is another of the five kingdoms to support the rebels. We are running out of allies."

"And I am running out of patience," Uther said.

Merlin was glad that Uther didn't have magic. It was something that he had thought about a lot for some reason. He was sure that more people would be dead due to the glares that Uther gave and just the burst of anger. They were somewhat powerful and Merlin could only imagine the destruction that would happen if it was mixed with anger. Not that a sword was just as powerful to end someone's life. There were still splatters of blood up the wall from the last council meeting.

"Sire, we have managed to capture Iseldir. He has been the one that has been smuggling children across the border, taking our children to teach them in their wicked ways."

Merlin had managed to speak to Iseldir. The druid leader was angry at Merlin for not taking the stand that other members of his kind were taking but Iseldir also knew that the stain of losing Arthur and, therefore, his destiny had hit Merlin hard. Iseldir did confess to him to smuggling families away but those were from the villages where the fighting was going to end up being in. He was trying to minimise the loss of civilian life, something that the Camelot side definitely wasn't thinking about.

"I am the bearer of bad news. The knights that left Camelot yesterday have already been ambushed. From the report I was given, it seems like most of them were killed. Sir Gwaine is missing."

Merlin could tell that Gaius was looking at him, probably willing him not to do anything stupid. It was already too late. Gwaine wasn't going to die because of him as well.

* * *

"Kara, what are you doing?" Gilli asked.

Kara jumped and stood up, hiding what she had just picked up.

"Nothing."

"Didn't seem like nothing."

"I was just making sure he was dead."

"Why?"

"Just because… we don't really want to leave any survivors to either follow us or run back to Camelot."

"I don't believe you. What's in your hand in your pocket?"

"Nothing."

"Still don't believe you."

Kara found herself sighing and getting her hand out of her pocket to show Gilli the rose that she had taken off the soldier.

"I saw it and wondered why a soldier would have a flower on him. And for it to look like someone had just picked it. I just wondered whether there was something odd about it."

"You are taking souvenirs again aren't you?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Don't play stupid with me. You know that the leaders don't like it."

"How do you know that?"

"Because Lancelot told me as you and a few others had been caught doing it. Goddess, leave the dead alone. It is bad enough that we have to kill them because they will kill us, without disturbing them afterwards."

"But do you not think that the rose is weird."

Gilli took another look at it before picking it up.

"How about you put it back. You don't know what might be happening with it."

Kara almost did as she was told but the flower just called out to her, telling her that she should explore more about it. Picking it up again and placing it in her pocket, she knew that she would crack it before anyone else found out.

* * *

Merlin had no idea how he was going to approach this. He wondered how many of them would see him as a traitor. He would see himself as a traitor. He should have defected as soon as Arthur died, if not before.

He managed to make it quite far into the camp before anyone said anything. With a shout of his actual name from an extremely familiar voice, Merlin couldn't stop smiling as he turned towards Gwen as she ran up and hugged him. It made him glad that he was back in her company once more. Things just had been the same in Camelot without her and it made it even worse with Arthur's death and Morgana's disappearance. He hoped that this war would have brought her back to where she was meant to be.

"What are you doing here?" Gwen asked.

"Doing something that I should have done a long time ago. I should have joined this side at the same time that you did."

"I think people will be glad that you are here now."

"I'm… I'm sorry for the way I treated you before you left."

"Merlin, you were grieving and… well, I think we have all learnt more about you and why you were so upset by Arthur's death. You were the one to save my father."

"Gwen we can go through the ins and outs of everything that I have done and sacrificed for Arthur and my destiny later. I should probably go and talk to whoever is in charge."

"Come on then."

* * *

"I know that you must view me as a traitor."

"We don't think that Kilgharrah helped. He made you blind to what you had to do. You followed Arthur into battle to protect him. How many years have you done that for him not to change his mind on magic once?"

"He did accept it once. I made him not accept him by telling him what Morgause had told him about his mother was a lie rather than the truth that it was. To stop him from killing his own father and then regretting it later. I was just trying to stop Arthur from becoming a second Uther."

One of the other leaders leant forward in his chair. "Well, at least Emrys has come to his senses. With him now on our side, morale should rise and this war should be over soon. Magic will reign on top. And talking about Kilgharrah, having a dragonlord on side should increase our chances."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Merlin said. "Even as a dragonlord, Kilgharrah doesn't necessarily listen to anything that I say. The last time I spoke to him was just after Arthur's death and he wasn't best pleased."

"He must believe that the revival of magic could only come through Arthur. We must now show him that the golden age will come without Arthur and that magic will be on top once more, as it should always have been. Whoever let Uther Pendragon take Camelot so easily didn't deserve the powers that were given to him." Another of the leaders said.

"We suppose that you are here because of your friends. We would all hope that you weren't on Camelot's side but we will monitor you for peace of mind."

"I wouldn't expect anything else," Merlin said.

* * *

When Kara woke up, she couldn't believe the destruction that surrounded her. She quickly got up and was alert. It wasn't until she noticed Gilli tending to his wounds that she had managed to sleep through the whole thing.

"Oh my goddess Gilli, what happened?"

"You just couldn't leave it could you?"

"What?"

"The rose. You just couldn't leave it with the body of that soldier. For goddess sakes Kara. It is obviously cursed and you have brought the curse with us. In your sleep, you used your magic to create a beast. It killed everyone but me."

"I…"

"You wanted to work out why it was still alive. Look around you Kara. Was it worth it?"

She took a look at the bodies lying around her. "I will find somewhere to put it."

"No. I think we need to take it back to see what the elders think. They might know how to break the curse. Who knows, it might have transferred to you just because you took it. You just can't sleep."

"Great?!" She said as she kicked a twig before collecting their stuff together.

* * *

"It what?"

"It helped her create a beast in her sleep. I'm not a hundred per cent certain on what happened but she was the only one of us who was still asleep when it attacked and she picked up the rose of some solider from Camelot." Gilli explained.

Merlin walked over and picked up the rose. "It is definitely one from the gardens. I saw many a noblewoman take them to give them to the soldiers that were departing."

"But why would someone put a curse on it?"

"We have no idea what the curse was intended for. Maybe it was for her lover to help them revenge what was happening to their kind, ie helping us. Or maybe it is doing its intention. Maybe there is someone who is tried with all the fighting and they just want it to end."

"That is just plain stupid," Gilli said.

"Or it might be a curse that was placed on the rose before any of us was born. It was just a coincidence that this rose was chosen by a certain noblewoman and give to that soldier."

"Do we know if the curse has transferred itself to Kara or not?" Gilli asked.

"I wouldn't know how to check if it had."

"Then can we destroy the curse on the rose?" Merlin said.

"We will try."

* * *

The curse was a powerful one and even if they had the chance to try and destroy it, it was never going to be enough. The more people that came into contact with it, the more victims it took and in a camp, where the majority were magic users, it only led to horrific and devastating consequences.

Merlin looked out at the camp as the flames began to die.

"Merlin," Gwen said as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I only came for Gwaine. Because he was the last one to abandon me."

"And he is here. You have me, Lancelot, Elyan and Gwaine. We can find somewhere to live in peace."

"What happens Gwen, if I don't want to live in peace? What if I have been given the greatest thing to bring down Uther for everything that he has done?"

Nothing more was said between them as Merlin opened his hand to reveal the rose. He knew that he should just spend the rest of his days trying to make sure that the curse never hurt another soul and he was sure that it is what he would do. But he had to avenge his kind, doing something that he should have done from the beginning. Maybe he just didn't realise how much the rose even affected his own thoughts at that moment.


End file.
